Maasai Scholarship Fund

Western education is a mixed blessing in Maasailand. On one hand, though primary education is mandated, no schools are built in Maasailand by the national government, and so access is limited and often unaffordable, and many students fail or are forced to drop out. Further, the national curriculum taught in these schools often misrepresents Maasai culture and history as ‘backward’ and ‘primitive’, supporting outside development agendas for Maasai land. However, school also provides tools necessary for Maasai survival, especially literacy and English language acquisition, and thus most Maasai send their boys and girls to school. In Maasai culture, the qualities of leadership are often identified in childhood and nurtured with special attention to cultural development. In recent years, we have seen the tremendous potential when those identified future leaders are also provided quality western education.​ 

Thus a vision has emerged in Maasailand for a blended education system that values both western and Indigenous knowledge and can produce strong leadership that can move in both worlds. A critical next step is for a broad representation of the community to have the authority over educational resources to use them strategically for the good of individual children and the community as a whole.